The Last Stink Bug: Amusing Antics of an Unlikely Winter Companion

They were late to congregate in my old Conowingo Victorian, but when they did, they were multiplying with magnificence.

Everybody was puzzled and overwhelmed, but I kinda just let them have their convention, like ladybugs, house flies, and other aphids had done over the decades.

And then their appearance was relentless into late fall; in every sweater and making condos behind my wall posters. As Christmas season commenced, their punctuality became infrequent.

As I write this in late January from my office beside the woodstove, I have a nightly visitor.
The last brown marmorated stink bug, who boldly struts to the center of my keyboard, notepad, watch, and wallet every evening.

I look for him now, as I sit with my nightly beverage. The audacity of this gray-brown, fat insect-dinosaur with undulating antennae. He walks to the desk corner, looks around, and does a short helicopter flight to my computer screen. Then he stumbles over and does a seven-step backflip to regain composure and bearings.

This bold critter has been doing these nightly antics for weeks!
Six legs like a walking stick, offset eyes, tri-colored antennae, and an earth-gray dorsal shield.

I gotta admit, for a walker usually gazing at hawks, rocks, and horizons, this desk-dweller has been distracted by the last insect critter of 2010.